New York Public Library

News about New York Public Library, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Feb. 20, 2015

New York Public Library exhibition Becoming the Man in the White Suit: The Tom Wolfe Papers features selection of items from archives of author Tom Wolfe. MORE

Feb. 17, 2015

New York Public Library announces lineup for Live From the NYPL speaker series. MORE

Feb. 1, 2015

Corey Kilgannon Character Study column on Matthew J Boylan, reference librarian at the New York Public Library, who, along with eight other researchers, fields about 300 queries a day. MORE

Nov. 24, 2014

New York City and New York Public Library announce $18 million plan to take over part of the privately run Huntington Free Library and Reading Room’s one-acre site in Westchester Square, Bronx, to build modern public library branch; Huntington hopes project, which would be largest effort to date to revitalize neighborhood, will bring more visitors to their doors. MORE

Aug. 7, 2014

English-language classes at New York City's public libraries are so popular that people in some neighborhoods stand in line for hours to sign up and many have to be turned away when they reach capacity; about 3.9 million residents in city speak language other than English at home. MORE

Jul. 9, 2014

Jim Dwyer About New York column; broadband access has an annual cost of close to $1,000 per home in New York City, leaving about 2.9 million people in digital dark; city's libraries provide free access within their facilities, but will now try lending people a small box that provides free wireless Internet service for up to five users at a time. MORE

Jun. 2, 2014

Library officials announce that New York Public Library's revised renovation plan to upgrade Mid-Manhattan Library and create more public space in its flagship Fifth Avenue building is expected to cost about $300 million; original plan would have cost $500 million. MORE

May. 31, 2014

Rose Main Reading Room in the New York Public Library temporarily closes after plaster falls from the ceiling; room is being thoroughly inspected for safety, and is expected to open in several weeks. MORE

May. 21, 2014

New York Public Library is in midst of processing archives of writer Tom Wolfe, encompassing 170 linear feet of manuscripts, reporter's notebooks, newspaper clippings, sketches and other materials; archive includes unusually rich vein of correspondence from editors, research subjects, fellow writers and ordinary readers. MORE

May. 14, 2014

Editorial welcomes New York Public Library's decision to abandon its plan to renovate its landmark building in Midtown, opting instead for a more modest, cheaper, quicker and smarter plan; contends library's reversal was motivated by the best of reasons. MORE

May. 8, 2014

New York Public Library abandons controversial renovation plan that would have turned its research flagship on 42nd Street into a circulating library; change in course comes as Mayor Bill de Blasio prepares to announce his final budget; library is still expected to receive the $150 million that had been allotted to the project under the Bloomberg administration, but library hopes to use it for other purposes like creating more public space and refurbishing the nearby Mid-Manhattan Library. MORE

Apr. 6, 2014

Corey Kilgannon Character Study column on Jaime Herrera, 14-year veteran of cleaning staff at New York Public LIbrary's main branch at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; Herrera is one of most sociable and involved employees at branch, despite being deaf since childhood and unable to speak. MORE

Mar. 12, 2014

A patron of the New York Public Library, who died last summer, set aside $6 million for the library in her will, the library announced on Wednesday. MORE

Feb. 27, 2014

David W Dunlap Building Blocks column; Washington Heights Library, which will re-open for first time in almost four years after $12.4 million renovation, will include what may be first plaque bearing name of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. MORE

Feb. 27, 2014

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has yet to decide whether city will continue funding renovation of New York Public Library's Fifth Avenue flagship; revised design and cost analysis promised by library are months overdue; Committee to Save the New York Public Library opposes the renovation. MORE

Dec. 12, 2013

David W Dunlap Building Blocks column on Mariners Harbor Library on Staten Island,which is 88th branch of New York Public Library and first newly established branch since opening of Battery Park City Library in March 2010; library is housed in bright, new building that sets hopeful tone. MORE

Nov. 21, 2013

New York Public Library buys archives of novelist and journalist Tom Wolfe for $2.15 million. MORE

Nov. 6, 2013

The New York Public Library and the Grammy Museum will present a multimedia exhibition, “Ladies and Gentlemen … The Beatles!” in February. MORE

Oct. 24, 2013

Opposition to the New York Public Library’s renovation plan prompts the hiring in an effort to build support. MORE

Oct. 23, 2013

The New York Public Library said the revised plan would be unveiled “sometime after the New Year” instead of this fall. MORE

Oct. 3, 2013

Michael Kimmelman asserts that one way New York can prepare its neighborhoods for the next disaster after Hurricane Sandy is to build more branch libraries; notes that libraries, which serve as everyday community centers, are an ideal place to shelter people during storms. MORE

Sep. 25, 2013

The five-year program, called NYPL BridgeUP, will provide academic and social support to eighth graders at five library branches in the Bronx and Manhattan. MORE

Jul. 19, 2013

Talks at the New York Public Library will feature authors including Margaret Atwood and Alice Waters, and Warren Buffett and Nico Muhly will also appear. MORE

Jul. 15, 2013

It may not be an official holiday, but National Dork Day was a cause for celebration at a library branch on Staten Island. MORE

Jul. 12, 2013

New York City’s public advocate, Bill de Blasio, took issue with the plan by the New York Public Library to overhaul its main Fifth Avenue branch. MORE

Jul. 10, 2013

A group of writers and scholars filed a lawsuit Wednesday to stop the New York Public Library from demolishing the stacks in its flagship 42nd Street building or moving books off-site. MORE

Jul. 4, 2013

The New York Public Library’s plan to renovate its main building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan is being challenged in a lawsuit. MORE

Jun. 28, 2013

New York Public Library president Tony Marx, responding to criticism that cost projections for renovation of library's flagship branch are not to be trusted, announces that he will commission a separate review of the plan. MORE

Jun. 23, 2013

Character Study column on Rosalind Gutierrez, Staten Island native who is legendary among New York Public Library officials for her obsessive approach to collecting signatures every spring on forms decrying possible city budget cuts to libraries. MORE

Jun. 21, 2013

Edward Rothstein reviews exhibition The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter at New York Public Library. MORE

May. 27, 2013

James Wentzy, who has spent years recording the history of the fight against AIDS, must soon leave the basement apartment in SoHo that has long served as his film-editing suite. MORE

May. 22, 2013

One of at least 14 original copies of the Bill of Rights will be displayed at the New York Public LIbrary in the fall, and in Philadelphia starting next fall. MORE

May. 18, 2013

Francis X Clines The City Life column praises rich trove of archives and resources at the New York Public Library's Milstein Division, which has cross-referenced names and addresses with long-awaited 1940 census data; holds result is eye-opening for scholars and family genealogists both. MORE

May. 9, 2013

Trustees of the New York Public Library on Wednesday agreed to begin using part of the $150 million in city funds allocated to pay for part of the cost of renovating its main branch on Fifth Avenue. MORE

May. 8, 2013

The protest was timed to coincide with the quarterly meeting of the New York Public Library’s trustees. MORE

May. 7, 2013

Donnell Library Center, branch of the New York Public Library, has been reconceived to fit at base of high-rise hotel and is designed to emphasize places to congregate rather than those for books. MORE

Apr. 12, 2013

More than 350 suggestions, from lion-namers as far away as England and Australia, were submitted for the stone lions outside the Riverdale branch of the New York Public Library. MORE

Apr. 4, 2013

The Riverdale branch is still accepting names for two lazy-looking lion statues that have been installed at its entrance. MORE

Mar. 18, 2013

The local community board in Manhattan has asked New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to give landmark status to the Rose Reading Room inside the New York Public Library’s flagship branch on Fifth Avenue. MORE

Mar. 7, 2013

The events will celebrate the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, who lived in New York City in 1929 and 1930. MORE

Feb. 27, 2013

In the days before Google, the New York Public Library hand clipped hundreds of thousands of photos and illustrations to create over 12,000 different files for its Picture Collection. MORE

Feb. 17, 2013

Christopher Gray Streetscapes column; plans to convert rear interior of New York Public Library building on Fifth Avenue from stacks into reading room have drawn attention to building's back facade, one of few in city to compete with its front face in terms of design. MORE

Feb. 4, 2013

Tour featuring hats from personal collection of Theodor Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr Seuss, will open at New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue; show, which highlights role of hats in Geisel's life, is timed to correspond with 75th anniversary of his book The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. MORE

Jan. 30, 2013

Michael Kimmelman Critic's Notebook expresses dismay with architect Norman Foster's plans to revamp and modernize New York Public Library's main 42nd Street building; notes new circulating library would be installed under reading room; contends his designs are not worthy of him and have all elegance and distinction of suburban mall. MORE

Jan. 2, 2013

Donations totaling about $20 million have begun flowing to the New York Public Library and the Central Park Conservancy from estate of Mary McConnell Bailey; private and quiet New Yorker, who died without an obituary or services in February, 2011, left little hint of the fortune she planned to bequeath on two favorite city institutions. MORE

Dec. 19, 2012

New York Public Library, in effort to silence complaints of secrecy in revamping of the landmark building, plans to unveil Norman Foster's design for a new circulating library in its Fifth Avenue flagship. MORE

Oct. 11, 2012

Profile of Tony Marx, New York Public Library president who is trying to bring the institution into the 21st century without losing the social cachet it gained in the 20th. MORE

Sep. 20, 2012

New York Public Library, in response to public outcry, revises the plan for its flagship Fifth Avenue research center, promising to keep most of its research materials on hand. MORE

Sep. 2, 2012

Sam Roberts introduces list of 50 objects that could embody the history of New York City, as identified by historians and curators from the New-York Historical Society, the New York Public Library and the American Museum of Natural History, among others; project was inspired by A History of the World in 100 Objects, the British Museum’s BBC radio series and book. MORE

Jun. 23, 2012

Edward Rothstein reviews exhibit Lunch Hour NYC, an examination of how workers in the city have eaten over the years, at the New York Public Library. MORE

{"type":"article","show_header_text":false,"header":"ARTICLES ABOUT THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY","query":"(org=\"NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY\" or org=\"Donnell Library Center\") and tom!=\"Caption\" and tom!=\"Correction\" and tom!=\"List\" and tom!=\"Paid Death Notice\" and dsk!=\"Society\"","search_query":"(organizations:\"NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY\" OR organizations:\"Donnell Library Center\") AND -type_of_material:\"Caption\" AND -type_of_material:\"Correction\" AND -type_of_material:\"List\" AND -type_of_material:\"Paid Death Notice\" AND -news_desk:\"Society\"","num_search_articles":"15","show_summary":true,"show_byline":true,"show_pub_date":true,"hide_thumbnails":false,"show_kicker":false,"show_title":false,"show_related_topics":true,"show_rad_links":true,"show_subtopics":true,"exclude_topics":"NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY","more_on_header":"MORE ON THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND:","alternate_index_subidx":"","show_thumbnails":true}

December 1, 2014, Monday

Putting a New York Public Library branch next to the Huntington Free Library and Reading Room is part of an $18 million plan that could help revitalize Westchester Square, a once-thriving commercial hub.